Return to the Guide to the Utah Legislature.
| First session in legislature: | 2001 |
| Most recent year of service for which data are available: | 2010 |
| Total sessions served in Utah House as of 2010: | 10 |
| Total sessions served in Utah Senate as of 2010: | 0 |
I present a variety of statistics about Rep. Stephen D. Clark's service in the Utah legislature. I highlight differences from chamber averages using little green and red arrows. The number of arrows is statistically determined. More arrows indicate a larger difference compared to the chamber average, in relation to how much diversity there is among legislators on this metric. If all legislators introduce exactly 5 bills, then a legislator who introduces 10 is very different; if legislators vary wildly in how many bills they introduce (but the average is still 5), then a legislator who introduces 10 bills may be less different from average. The standard deviation measures this diversity.
/
Three arrows mean that the legislator is significantly different from average (i.e. at least two standard deviations from the mean, placing the legislator in the top/bottom 2% or so)./ Two arrows mean that the legislator is somewhat different from average (i.e. at least one standard deviation from the mean, placing the legislator in the top/bottom 16% or so)./ One arrow indicates that the legislator is only slightly different from average (i.e. one-third standard deviation from the mean). A single arrow indicates a very small difference; don't make too much of it.| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service summary. Service prior to 2007 (if any) is not shown here. My database goes back only to 2007. | |||||
| Chamber | House | House | House | House | |
| District | H63 | H63 | H63 | H63 | |
| Party | R | R | R | R | |
| Leadership | None | None | None | None | |
| Years in chamber | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| Years comparison | | | | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| Bills sponsored (learn more) Bills written and promoted by the legislator in his/her own chamber. | |||||
| Introduced by Clark | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 | |
| Chamber average | 6.1 | 6.1 | 5.9 | 6.1 | |
| Difference | +0.9 | -0.1 | +0.1 | -2.1 | |
| Comparison | == | == | == | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| Bill passage rate (learn more). What percent of Rep. Clark's sponsored bills pass and are officially "enrolled"? (I ignore whether the governor signed or vetoted the bill.) | |||||
| Bills introduced | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 | |
| Bills passed | 6 | 2 | 3 | 3 | |
| Passage rate | 86% | 33% | 50% | 75% | |
| Chamber average | 51% | 53% | 60% | 61% | |
| Difference | +35 | -19.8 | -9.9 | +14 | |
| Comparison | | | == | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| Bills floor sponsored. A "floor sponsor" is like a secondary sponsor of a bill. After a bill passes the sponsor's chamber, its sponsor needs to find a "floor sponsor" in the other chamber to usher it through the other chamber. | |||||
| Total floor sponsored | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | |
| Chamber average | 3.1 | 3.2 | 2.8 | 2.8 | |
| Difference | +0.9 | -3.2 | +1.2 | -0.8 | |
| Comparison | == | | == | == | |
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| Missed votes (learn more). Usually missed votes occur because of competing obligations within the legislature, not because the legislator has left the capitol. | |||||
| Missed votes | 43 | 52 | 28 | 51 | |
| Total votes held | 602 | 616 | 600 | 614 | |
| Absentee rate | 7.1% | 8.4% | 4.7% | 8.3% | |
| Chamber average | 8.3% | 8.3% | 6.0% | 6.8% | |
| Difference | -1.2 | +0.1 | -1.3 | +1.5 | |
| Comparison | == | == | == | == | |
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| "Nay" votes (learn more). Most floor votes pass by overwhelming majorities, since unpopular bills get weeded out long before they reach the floor. As a result, "nay" votes are rare. | |||||
| "Nay" votes | 26 | 17 | 19 | 25 | |
| Total votes held | 602 | 616 | 600 | 614 | |
| "Nay" rate | 4.3% | 2.8% | 3.2% | 4.1% | |
| Chamber average | 7.2% | 6.0% | 8.1% | 7.4% | |
| Difference | -2.9 | -3.2 | -4.9 | -3.3 | |
| Comparison | | | | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| Winning side rate (learn more). What percentage of the time (excluding near-unanimous votes) is the legislator on the winning side of a floor vote? | |||||
| Winning side rate | 81% | 89% | 78% | 84% | |
| Chamber average | 67% | 69% | 66% | 69% | |
| Difference | +14 | +20 | +11 | +14 | |
| Comparison | | | | |
|
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| Ideology score (NOMINATE method) (learn more). Using W-NOMINATE algorithm developed by Congressional scholars, I calculate each legislator's relative ideology after each General Session. I describe the method here. Scores have no intrinsic meaning. They are only relative: A legislator with a higher score is to the right ideologically of a legislator with a lower scale. Scores may be compared only within a single chamber and a single year. In most years, a conservative Republican will have a score above 0; a score close to 100 is extreme. | |||||
| Contact me for scores. They get misinterpreted often enough that I now provide them only to political scientists. | |||||
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| Party support score (overall) (learn more). How consistently does Rep. Clark support his/her party? That is, what percentage of the time does the legislator vote with the majority of the other members of his/her party? Scores are usually easily above 90%. | |||||
| Score (overall) | 96% | 97% | 97% | 95% | |
| Chamber average | 95% | 95% | 94% | 95% | |
| Difference | +1.7 | +1.8 | +2.6 | +0.7 | |
| Comparison | | | | == | |
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
| Party support score (party-line only) (learn more). This is the same as the "raw" party support score, but we look only at party-line votes when calculating this. A "party-line" vote occurs when the majority of Democrats votes against the majority of Republicans. Although party-line votes are rare, looking at the legislator's party support score in this setting can be revealing. | |||||
| Score (party-line only) | 78% | 82% | 84% | 68% | |
| Chamber average | 79% | 82% | 81% | 84% | |
| Difference | -1.2 | +0.4 | +2.9 | -16.1 | |
| Comparison | == | == | == | |
|
Only 16 bills sponsored by Rep. Clark have come to a vote. Listed below are all votes held on bills that Rep. Clark sponsored. The votes are sorted by vote margin, with the most divisive votes listed first.
| Year | Sponsor | Bill | Ayes | Nays | Margin (as % of total votes) |
Type of vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Clark | HB0290S03 | 45 | 29 | 22% | House/ concurs with Senate amendments |
| 2007 | Clark | SB0109 | 20 | 9 | 38% | Senate/ pass 2nd |
| 2009 | Clark | HB0290S03 | 55 | 20 | 47% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2008 | Clark | HB0253 | 54 | 15 | 57% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2009 | Clark | HB0107S02 | 56 | 13 | 62% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2009 | Clark | HB0004 | 65 | 7 | 81% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2008 | Clark | HCR003 | 22 | 1 | 91% | Senate/ pass 2nd & 3rd (Suspension) |
| 2010 | Clark | HB0005S03 | 68 | 3 | 92% | House/ concurs with Senate amendment |
| 2009 | Clark | HB0290S03 | 26 | 1 | 93% | Senate/ pass 2nd & 3rd (Suspension) |
| 2009 | Clark | HB0004 | 27 | 1 | 93% | Senate/ pass 2nd & 3rd (Suspension) |
